The present invention is directed to a preferred composition of an inorganic casting material for encapsulating and supporting cadmium telluride (CdTe) ingots or boules prior to and during wafering. CdTe is fragile and must be supported in a potting material during multiblade cutting or wafering. CdTe boules are usually not seeded when grown and thus their crystal orientation is random from one ingot to the next. Particularly since the (111) plane is of interest in the sawn wafers, the random orientation of the (111) plane in the CdTe ingot requires sawing into the ingot at odd angles which necessitates potting the boule to perform multiblade wafering. The hardness of the potting material (or encapsulant) must be of a comparable hardness to that of the CdTe boule.